The Corner

New York and New York

In a strange way I think the two sensibilities enforce each other. The quotations you cited represent a strain of NYC anti-naturism. But many Gothamites require the country as a place of refuge. Teddy Roosevelt would be an extreme case–born and raised in brownstones, but spending so much of his spare time in the Adirondacks (where he learned that McKinley was shot), the Badlands, the Amazon, etc.

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.
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